"Well, the door works perfectly fine. Only problem is, it floods this whole place if you try to turn the doorknob."
"So I guess technically there's something wrong with the doorknob?"
"Oh. Can Tanith or Cuetz just kick the door in, then?"
"Touching the door at all is a bad idea."
"Oh. Well, I can try to animate it." Astraden pulls out a scroll. "Just in case, let's get some gills."
After reading the scroll and touching each of her friends, the priestess makes legs of her fingers and, bending down, walks them across the floor, intoning, "Tinīharūlā'ī antargata dēkhi bāhira āphnō dhana-sampattilē hiṇḍna." She then points to the doors and seems to concentrate.
Carina cringes and braces herself for the worst.
"Oh boy..."
"I'm pretty sure we end up getting ambushed every time we take to the water", Tanith muses aloud while Astraden tries to solve the problem.
Astraden shapes a hole in the left door.
The stone ripples, then opens in a vortex. The room beyond becomes visible.
This chamber, opulent by nearly any standard, seems somehow alien despite its finery. Furniture placed at odd and uncomfortable angles blends with the disconcerting imagery of the carpets and tapestries that decorate the room. This imagery is sometimes understandable, depicting scenes of carnage and torture in great detail and in other places is simply abstract patterns drawn by an alien and unsettled mind.
The gray, skeletal six-armed figure from the group's visions sits at a writing desk seemingly crafted out of pure olivine, its back to the heroes as it writes. It does not turn around.
The images come again, flashing a fast and vivid message. ~ I am the Harbinger of Worms. Tell me, why have you come here? ~
"Honestly we're just kinda curious about the history of this place at this point."
Astraden sticks her head through the hole. "Sorry about the door. We're trying to retrace the steps of a wizard named Bucknard. You see him? About yay high -" Astraden mimes a human height "- Probably carrying some books and scrolls and s&+#. Maybe wearing something like my robe." She points to her stars and moons robe. "He got real upset when he found out who took your friend Kyuss out of here. We're not sure where he went after that."
The cleric stares at the Harbinger's back, wrinkling her nose at its withered gray flesh. "Look, we know you've been spying on us all this time, and you've never bothered to attack us before, so we can keep this amicable, right? If you don't have any info on Bucknard's whereabouts, we'll leave you be and I'll even patch up your door. If you do know where he's gone, we could strike you a deal for what you know."
"Wow, you know, I completely forgot about that guy."
~ Do you know what the Hand of Vecna is? ~
"Vecna's... hand?" Eben ventures with the obvious.
Carina gulps and ponders the Harbinger's question...
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"Actually, I think that's an urban legend, sparked by the much less commonly known Vecna's Head."
"Isn't that an old adventurer's tale? Always thought it was b#+!*&$%."
The Harbinger turns and gazes upon the party. Its eyes glint, pits of darkness with little red fires flickering in the distance.
~ The city built in a bowl. The caldera east of here. Has the volcano awoken? Has ruin by fire descended? ~
Carina gulps and ponders the Harbinger's question...
[dice=Knowledge (Arcana)?]1d20+16
"So . . . Bucknard went to a volcano? Pursuing this fallacious 'Vecna's Hand?' Well, that's a better clue than Sruggut gave us."
"What's the chance the Harbinger was the one who inspired this goose chase?" Astraden whispers to Eben. "Seems like it enjoys handing out prank quests to any adventurers who make it in here."
The images continue to flash as the Harbinger ignores Astraden. ~ I assume by your presence here that the worm-eaten dead once again walk. ~
"Actually, Astraden, Vecna's Hand is an actual artifact." Carina pipes up. "It grants unfathomable power over life and death to anyone who finds it."
"Although I'm not sure where the whole Head of Vecna thing came from..."
"And, um... yeah, we've had to deal with a bunch of Kyuss-zombies, if that's what you're referring to."
"Cauldron, guys. One of the prophecies about the Age of Worms that Manzorian was talking about. Yeah, Harbinger, it's been destroyed. The volcano erupted last year."
"And you better bet the Kyuss Zombies are out in force."
~ I see. ~ The Harbinger's head tilts to the side. ~I think I understand who you are now. Be on your way. I have no further interest in you. ~
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"Presumably the hand of someone named Vecna."
"Huh, really? Learn something new every day. What other kind of Vecna limbs are there - foot, maybe?"
"Ah, Cauldron! Aren't Celeste and . . . Hecame? from there?" Astraden focuses, trying to remember, then gives up. "That's gotta be a dead end, though. Any clues would've been destroyed by the volcano, and Celeste would've probably already extracted them anyways."
Astraden sticks her head through the hole again. "Hey, thanks for nothing, I guess." She turns to the rest of the party. "We want to check out the last unexplored area or should we spend a while longer trying to get something useful out of this creep?"
"I'm down with exploring. Though, I do have one more question for Harbinger."
"So, what exactly do you DO here? I mean, what's in it for you staying in the basement of this weird citadel doing whatever it is you do?"
~ I am waiting. If 'Cauldron' has seen the fruition of its prophecy, and the recrudescence of the dead has begun, it is likely that the prophecies are beginning to come true en masse. I, like you, have a part to play in them. ~ The Harbinger watches the group with cold, dark eyes. ~ When you have secured the certainty of the Age of Worms, the Obsidian Ring will crumble, and I will be free once more. ~
Eben slides his way forward, maneuvers around Astraden, and sticks his own head through the hole and into the room. "One thing I want to know. Dragotha. We know she's the one that stole the top of the spire. We know that Kyuss was trapped inside of it. Why steal it? Was she trying to free him, or is that all pure coincidence?"
Eben doesn't think to ask any other followup questions from Manzorian's briefing.
The Harbinger does not answer.
"Presumably the hand of someone named Vecna."
"Right, come on, everyone. Let's go explore that southeast wing." Astraden pulls Eben away from the hole and starts walking back up the corridor, possibly deliberately forgetting to fill the hole back in with her scroll.
When the group has reached the east side of the worm lake, she whispers, "'I will be free once more?' That sounds like bad news, considering the Harbinger still seems to like Kyuss and is almost definitely more powerful than Sruggut. But liches are almost impossible to kill because of their phylacteries . . ."
"...yeah, I have a bad feeling we're going to have to fight him before we're done here."
Cuetzpalli goes over to Astraden. "Guess this is the last area to check out..."
"You guys know he's probably still spying on us, right?"
Astraden catches Eben's eye and nods almost imperceptibly.
Ahead of the party is another door.
Tanith reflects briefly on how much time the party spends studying doors.
Carina's armour stops glowing and she drops to the stone floor. "Aww."
Greater Mutagen: Still Active
Shield: 78/120 Rounds
Death Ward: 79/120 Rounds
Farrukh inspects, then opens the door.
This room seems out of place, given the cold and barren decor of the other chambers in the complex. The floor is covered with a thick green carpet, and a long, padded divan sits in the room's center. Small padded stools surround the divan.
The walls are carved with nightmarish scenes of a dual world. The lower half of these carvings depict a world of caverns and twisting tunnels that are infested with massive worms, creatures that look like humans posing as worms, and creatures more horrifying than either.
On the upper half, these worm monsters burst from the ground to ravage and ruin numerous humanoid civilizations. Dragons with the heads of worms fly in thee skies above, and towering over them all is an immense figure dressed in plate armor and wielding a strange polearm that combines the features of a pick, an axe, and a mace. The man's face is hidden by the hood of his dark gray robe, but worms drip from under his cowl.
Above each of the the doors is a nameplate that Eben can read. From top to bottom, they read:
Barnos Indarna, Dreamer of the Green
Kardic, the Shadow Worm
Marka, the Mageslayer
At that moment, each of the doors open. Three figures step out, marching as if to some unheard drum. They wear dark suits of armor that hide much of their forms from view, but their skeletal visage and worm-maw eyes mark them as the same types of undead as Nezzarin, the Kyuss Knight from up above. In unison, they draw their weapons and point at the party. A bow carved from bleached wood. A mace crafted out of what looks like red clay. A strange rapier forged from two blades spiraling around one another, visibly vibrating with dark energy.
"The Age of Writhing Doom approaches," Barnos whispers.
"The Age of Worms," says Kardic. "This is no time for heroes, doomed ones. You should not have come here."
"One could say that this time..." Marka says slowly, "...the worm will get the early bird."
The other two knights turn to Markath and stare. They say nothing. After a moment, they turn back to the intruders.
"Hahaha! ," Astraden says as she runs forward, holding up her mask. Her laughter echoes for a moment behind her, then catches up and deepens with a sort of Doppler effect, pulsing into the room and hammering the Kyuss Knights in the doorways. "Here's one for you. None of us are birds."
She eyes Marka's rapier. "That's a nice couple of blades, by the way."